Featured Research

from universities, journals, and other organizations

Asthma Drugs Need To Be Maintained For Continued Benefit, Study Shows

Date:

February 27, 2009

Source:

Washington University School of Medicine

Summary:

Children whose asthma improved while taking steroid drugs for several years did not see those improvements continue after stopping the drugs, new results from a comprehensive childhood asthma study show.

Share This

Children whose asthma improved while taking steroid drugs for several years did not see those improvements continue after stopping the drugs, new results from a comprehensive childhood asthma study show.

Related Articles

The results come from the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP) clinical trial, in which more than 1,000 children age 5-12 were treated for mild to moderate asthma over more than four years at eight centers, including Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The children in the randomized trial were divided into three groups: one received twice-daily budesonide, an inhaled corticosteroid medication; one received nedocromil, an inhaled non-steroid medication; and one group received a placebo. All children received albuterol, a bronchodilator, and oral corticosteroids as needed for asthma symptoms.

This study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, followed up with the children nearly five years after the end of the trial. Researchers found that the children, now in their late teens, who took the medications during the trial showed no difference in their asthma control compared with the children who received the placebo.

"The interesting thing is that as kids with asthma get older, they actually do better," said Robert C. Strunk, M.D., a Washington University pediatrician at St. Louis Children's Hospital and lead author of the study. "We used to say they were outgrowing their asthma. What we know now is that as they go from being young children to age 20, their airways get bigger. They still have asthma but don't have as much trouble from it."

Inhaled corticosteroids such as budesonide have been shown to be the most effective form of anti-inflammatory treatment for asthma by controlling symptoms and improving pulmonary function. Results from the original CAMP trial showed that using budesonide twice daily led to fewer hospitalizations and urgent care visits, fewer days in which additional asthma medications were needed and a reduced need for albuterol, a fast-acting drug for relief of acute asthma symptoms. Using nedocromil twice daily reduced urgent care visits and courses of oral steroids for severe symptoms, but did not affect the number of hospitalizations, symptoms or airway responsiveness.

Although the patients had fewer symptoms five years after stopping the daily medication, Strunk cautions that doesn't mean that they can stop using asthma medications altogether or that their asthma is cured.

"While the kids did get better with age and didn't seem to need the medicine as much, laboratory measurements indicated that they were still having symptoms, and therefore were primed to an attack if they got a bad cold or were exposed to a significant weather change," Strunk said.

The researchers determined that continued benefit of these medications likely requires continued use.

"The conclusion is that some kids get better, but the doctor, family and the patient have to pay attention to the symptoms," Strunk said. "Some of the kids are going to need medicine, and they have to be honest about that possibility."

In another part of the follow-up study, researchers looked at long-term side effects of the steroid medications on growth, bone density and fracture rate. The only side effect of budesonide was a 0.4-inch decrease in height among female patients compared to the patients who took a placebo during the trial. However, one-fourth of the girls and more than half of the boys in the trial had not reached final adult height at the end of the post-trial period, researchers said. There were no effects of the nedocromil treatment on growth.

Funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Center for Research Resources supported this research.

Strunk et al. Long-Term Budesonide or Nedocromil Treatment, Once Discontinued, Does Not Alter the Course of Mild to Moderate Asthma in Children and Adolescents. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2009; DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2008.11.036

Washington University School of Medicine. "Asthma Drugs Need To Be Maintained For Continued Benefit, Study Shows." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 February 2009. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217141811.htm>.

Washington University School of Medicine. (2009, February 27). Asthma Drugs Need To Be Maintained For Continued Benefit, Study Shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 3, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217141811.htm

Washington University School of Medicine. "Asthma Drugs Need To Be Maintained For Continued Benefit, Study Shows." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217141811.htm (accessed March 3, 2015).

More From ScienceDaily

More Health & Medicine News

Featured Research

Mar. 3, 2015 — Limp or firm, your handshake conveys subliminal social cues. Now, research reveals it also transmits chemical signals that could explain why the greeting evolved in the first ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Two of the four known groups of human AIDS viruses (HIV-1 groups O and P) have originated in western lowland gorillas, according to new research. The scientists conducted a comprehensive survey of ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — In the first study of its kind since the 1920s, rats in New York City were found to carry a flea species capable of transmitting plague pathogens. Among them: 500-plus Oriental rat fleas, notorious ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — A newly published study is the first to report an association between bisphenol-A (BPA), a common plasticizer used in a variety of consumer food and beverage containers, with autism spectrum disorder ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — What do a human colon, septic tank, copper nanoparticles and zebrafish have in common? They were the key components used by researchers to study the impact copper nanoparticles, which are found in ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — You might resemble or act more like your mother, but a novel research study reveals that mammals are genetically more like their dads. Specifically, the research shows that although we inherit equal ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — Scientists who have discovered the mechanism of a protein that suppresses inflammation in the body, say the information could potentially be used to develop new drugs to control inflammation. The ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — A deficiency in the protein responsible for moving glucose across the brain's protective blood-brain barrier appears to intensify the neurodegenerative effects of Alzheimer's disease, according to a ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — Researchers describe how postmortem brain slices can be 'read' to determine how a rat was trained to behave in response to specific sounds, a new article suggests. The work provides one of the first ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — Teenagers in North Carolina were easily able to buy electronic cigarettes online because both Internet vendors and shipping companies failed to verifying ages in a study that assessed compliance with ... full story

Featured Videos

Mom Triumphs Over Tragedy, Helps Other Families

AP (Mar. 3, 2015) — After her son, Dax, died from a rare form of leukemia, Julie Locke decided to give back to the doctors at St. Jude Children&apos;s Research Hospital who tried to save his life. She raised $1.6M to help other patients and their families. (March 3)
Video provided by AP

Woman Convicted of Poisoning Son

AP (Mar. 3, 2015) — A woman who blogged for years about her son&apos;s constant health woes was convicted Monday of poisoning him to death by force-feeding heavy concentrations of sodium through his stomach tube. (March 3)
Video provided by AP

Jan. 24, 2012 — A randomized clinic trial found that the addition of lansoprazole does not improve asthma symptoms or the control of asthma in children and may increase the risk for upper respiratory infections and ... full story

July 12, 2010 — TIM1 has been identified as a susceptibility gene for asthma. New research in mice now suggests that targeting TIM-1 protein might have therapeutic benefit in treating this increasingly prevalent ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.